AFNCCF Perinatal Mental Health wins Award

27th October 2017 By: Niall McGourty

The International Training School in Infancy and Early Years (ITSIEY) has received the Emma Cadywould Award at the first Perinatal Mental Health Awards.

ITSIEY combines the wealth of knowledge and expertise from Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and Yale University Child Study Centre to set train the workforce in the knowledge and skills needed to work with infants and their families.

The school draws on evidence along with neurobiological, psychoanalytic, attachment and family systems ideas to offer continuing professional development to all practitioners working with parents and young children. They focus on the child and their family within the context of their wider community and environment.

The Perinatel Mental Health awards recognise best practice and achievement in the field of perinatal mental health and is organised by The Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) and Mums and Babies in Mind, supported by the Big Lottery Fund.

In its inaugural year, they have awarded ITSIEY with the Emma Cadywould Awardfor Perinatal Mental Health Education and Training.

Tessa Baradon, Director of ITSIEY, said:

"ITSIEY is proud to receive this award. Our mission is to contribute to the well-being of babies/young children and their families by training the health, social care, psychology and education workforce, since perinatal and infant mental health is embedded in all aspects of their practice. The evidence is that babies are sentient –they are able to perceive and feel, and – with the nurture of those caring for them - they try to make sense of their worlds.

"When parents are unable to nurture their infants – they and their babies suffer. Those who interface with babies and their families need knowledge and capacities to support infant development and to address relationships which inhibit it. A focus on the infant and their family within the context of the wider communities in which they live, is at the heart of ITSIEY’s vision and teaching."

“This is a remarkable group of cutting-edge scientists gathered at Imperial College to discuss mental health across the generations and the earliest possible interventions to prevent mental health problems.”

Dr Camilla Rosan, Programme Lead for Families, Children and Young People at the Mental Health Foundation, said:

"We had nearly 100 nominations from the public, private and charity sectors. We were looking for projects and services with a creative and innovative approach to perinatal mental health and we found some real heroes."